2013-10-05 - Brain Pain - Part 1 - The Art of the Trap
For the Titans, the last few days had proven - relaxing? Boring? Uneventful. Both good, and bad news when you're a hero. It's a coin toss; you feel a certain ease of burden because everything is going right, for once, perhaps. But on the other end, when it's all you know? It can prove to be a dangerous realization that perhaps you don't really want peace, afterall M'gann is watching television, as she normally does, not seeming to mind the tedious lack of crimes to thwart, aliens to send back, or the lack of gigantic monsters that are trying to eat people's souls. She, instead, is just finishing an entire pack of Oreos. Double Stuffed. Then, she squints at the television, and says, almost grumpily, "This isn't supposed to be on. Where's Breaking Bad?" Yes. Poor M'gann has been watching Breaking Bad and now believes that most cancer victims are involved in illegal activities, such as drug creation, to earn extra money. She flips the stations a few times, but the same face keeps showing up on it. Deathstroke's face. As the masked mercenary for hire comes into full focus, he greets with an all-too familiar voice to the Titans, "Greetings, Titans. I find myself in need of your company, this evening. Do make certain you come, and on time. I'm expecting you in ten minutes, flat. Golden Gate Park. And, just to give you extra incentive?" The camera pans out, showing ... a blonde girl, young, pretty. The barista that serves Roy his coffeee, on occassion at a shoppe that Roy stops at. A well-muscled dark haired fellow that Kory's had a few conversations with while sunbathing on the beaches. And, another girl - a brunette, that Kon recently had saved from certain death ... all tied up, and him, pointing his sword at their throats. "It would be a shame, to have to clean my blade off. Don't keep me waiting." The camera pans out, and the regular shows begin to air again. The time? 8:04pm. Six minutes to get to the park; one would presume Deathstroke is not one to bluff. M'gann squints, "I do not think I like him very much," she suggests. "He does not seem very nice." Starfire is not sure what exactly the littlest cancer patient has to do over with things, and as the screen flashes and Deathstroke presents his challenge, she rises up, "Even when asking for our aid he must do so in a most macabre manner." Even having seemingly gone straight, he still had to have things his way. She roses up, ready to lead whatever available Titans were to go out and face the Terminator. "I thought that ended," Superboy remarks at first, and then he watches the message. "Huge jerk, has it in for the Titans after his son got himself killed, or something like that." He glances around. "Ten minutes is plenty of time for some of us, should one of us go ahead and scope out ahead of time? Geeze, where's Kid Flash when you need him?" "Really?" Cassie says, floating out of the kitchen to see where Slade's voice is coming from. "Now? I was just making cookies!" But she already turned the oven off anyway. "I'm going to pound him." She sighs. "What could he want? Ah, well. I'll get a couple of us at least there quick." It is as the Titans start to get ready for deployment that a call is made on the Titans channel. Roy answers his phone as he is munching on popcorn shrimp and mac & cheese with his daughter as they watch television at the house. He falls silent. "Seriously?" He winces. "Damn it Slade." He then looks at Lian when her eyes get wide, "Don't tell Rose. I'm calling the nanny now and will meet you at the park." It doesn't take long to contact Rose to inform her an emergency popped up and if she could watch Lian while he went to tend to it. She is already on her way over as Roy transforms himself into Arsenal. He is telling Lian to not burn the house down as he gets on his motorcycle in the garage and soon takes off, a loose brown trench coat in place to hide his quiver, bow, and other weaponry from the neighborhood. He passes Rose as she's driving down the street to his house. M'gann doesn't have a communicator, and she's keeping true to her word to not invade her friends, or would-be friends minds. She therefore sticks close to Starfire, Kon, and Wonder Girl as the group makes their way to the park. Up ahead, to those that see well, they'll see a small setup of lights in the exact middle of the park, and the four figures, Deathstroke and his three victims. "Is he not very foolish to try to fight all of us at once?" She's wondering, aloud, puzzled. It's 8:09 PM. 1 minute left to his deadline. And, the Titans know him well enough to know he's not one to bluff. Starfire flies along with the others, "We are here, Deathstroke. NOw let the others go. We have come when you wished of us, now do not endanger them any further." She lands, glowing like a flare, her powers charged and ready. "I was thinking anger management classes. Maybe swapping all his coffee with decaffeinated." He arrives before the deadline with the others, and looks to M'gann. "He's more dangerous than you'd think just looking at him." "It's a trap, of course." Cassie advises the Martian. "He probably has friends... but no, he can take on the League all by himself. He's smarter than all of us put together and is already five moves ahead of us in the game. He's like evil Batman, with guns. And he has those hostages..." Arsenal grunts, "Why am I the only one that can't fly? This is really not fair," and a pause, "Who's the green girl?" He hasn't heard. "Hopefully talk him out of it, and lots of bullets. A whole lot of bullets. And let's not tell his daughter, she will punch me for not bringing her along." He hopes Lian keeps the secret, sometimes the girl is really good with those, sometimes not depending on her mood. Slade saved Lian and Rose during the super-villain uprising when most the heroes disappeared from the world. That is not something Roy would forget, the merc saving his daughter's life free of charge. When Arsenal pulls up to the park, he skids to a halt, and removes the trench coat so he can access his entire arsenal. He parks the motorcycle and turns it off, dismounting and leaving the duster lay over it. People usually won't bother his bike when they see a superhero battle nearby, cause they would rightly guess the supped up thing belongs to one of the superheroes, or worse, one of the villains. As the Titans arrive, M'gann it seems, for the most part, falls to the back of things to assess the situation, to watch - a bit shy and uncertain as to her place with everything and looking to them for her ques on what to do. Deathstroke is, indeed, the only one there besides his bartering pieces. The three victims look utterly terrified; though hope comes into their eyes as they see the heroes come, at Deathstroke's bidding. The manipulative master merc says, cooly, and without any worry in his tone that he's facing down the Titans, at least two of which could quite literally tear him in half in the blink of an eye or laser-eye his face off, "Careful, now. You wouldn't wish to react too swiftly, would you?" His head tilts, but his hand doesn't waver in the least. "There is, after all a reason that I wanted to speak with you, here, and now." Still, the man who seems often unkillable, and unrelentless remains utterly still beneath his mask. He takes a breath, to speak again. "And you aren't even aware of it, are you?" One can almost hear, imagine, the sly smile beneath the mask that covers his face as he comes to that determination. "You are blind. I thought you were better than that," he chides, as if disappointed in each and every one of them. The single eye lingers on M'gann, notating, "You're too busy recruiting new blood to notice." One can't miss the sneer on his lips, "You've gone soft. Or, perhaps, you were never worth my time in the first place," He stares at each of them, out of his singular eye, even as he seems to be lecturing them. If it's a trap, like most of the Titans suspect, it's not been sprung, yet. But Slade does not show any sign of letting the victims go, just yet. His sword moves closer to the neck of the blonde. Then, he begins to slowly pace, down the line of victims, his blade staying near each of their necks, in turn. "It's happening all around you. And you can't even see it. Pathetic." Starfire's eyes blaze out, "You have us here, now say your peace. And if you dare to monologue and insult us I shall have no concerns whatsoever of throwiing you into lower orbit and letting one of the others gcatch you on the way down. Do not toy wtih us, Deathstroke, or they would have to find out whether you can be regenerated from a husk of charcoal." Hands blazing out with glowing green energy in front of her. "Never really took you for the conspiracy theory type, Slade. Well, not when you're not a conspirator, anyway," Superboy says, he glances to Wonder Girl, then back to Slade. "This about the jail break?" he wonders, genuinely curious. As long as the hostages haven't been hurt, he seems willing to talk, though there's an obvious tension to the teen that says that he's ready to switch gears at a moment's notice. His head cocks unconsciously to one side as he listens to the entire surrounding area. It's subtle, a slight tilt of the head, but he's listening out to anyone with the skills to notice. Wonder Girl hovers still, drifting slowly up and over the master-mercenary and his hostages. Up and and little behind, on the man's blind side... not that it will do much good. "Are you enjoying your little game, Deathstroke? Who hired you? Don't tell us you're playing along with Cheshire?" She has her lasso out, loops in her hand that spark and sizzle with energy. "Poor guy." "Look Slade," Arsenal says. "You know our personal phone numbers, couldn't you have just /called/, seriously?" He looks quite annoyed and frustrated at Deathstroke. His heart is of course pounding fast, he thought they were past all this. But with Deathstroke, one never knows for sure as there is always the next job. That does it, Arsenal face palms as Deathstroke starts to inform why he is doing this. "You cannot be /serious/." Dumb-struck. He will enjoy strangling Deathstroke if he could ever get his hands on him! But being the peace keeper he is at times, Arsenal says, "Whao, let's all calm down here." Arsenal then points at Deathstroke, "Just let them go. If you want a fight, we will fight you, you don't need hostages for that. We know a training session with you will hurt and be for real, but we are game, and always will be." He then pauses, "Right, jailbreak," and a chill goes down his spine. He doesn't want Cheshire out and loose again, let alone this soon. So much for his happy place. "Says the alien who could not even see betrayal in her sister," sneers Slade towards Starfire, without concern for his own safety against Starfire's rage. "It is no surprise you cannot see the uprising brewing in the very city you call home." Then his head turns towards Kon. "It is not about a jailbreak. I've given you a year to notice it. You've failed. These three are only a representation of your failures." He gestures, almost disdainfully towards the three, then there's that smile towards Wonder Girl. "That's the real mystery, isn't it? Who -am- I working for? And all of you, together, couldn't piece it together. You don't really expect me to tell you, do you?" And that disdainful, almost disappointed tone trails in the end of that sentence, weighted heavily. "If you haven't discovered by now? Well. It's a bit too late, for that." He pauses, and focuses that single ocular lens towards Roy. "As for Chesire. She has her own plans, I understand. Hell hath no fury." M'gann steps forward, suddenly, pushing to the front. And, with absolute certainty, she states, "He is not Deathstroke. They are not victims." Her eyes? They're glowing a soft, luminious color. "It is a trap." Not that the Titans didn't know that already, ... but M'gann continues, "They are ready for us. All of us. Except for me. They did not know I would be here." Her gaze sweeps the group of four. Hopefully, her interference will be able to help the group react to the trap that was set for them. The male victim suddenly stands up, taps something on his wrist; and the entire area around the group is suddenly bathed in red sunlight, even as the illusion of his costume is dissapated, revealing him to be Dr. Light. Another costume, also, that of the blonde is removed as well, and the woman behind the light-illusion costume, Phobia, is already at work casting the imagery of fear at Starfire of finding herself a captured, helpless, experimented slave again at the hands of his sister ... The brunette begins to expand, ready to attack as Madame Rouge sloughs off her own costume. 'Deathstroke', meanwhile, looks with utterly rageful eyes at M'gann. "You ruined it! You ruined everything! The role of a lifetime!" This is why they have M'Gann. To help them not look like quite cute-diots. Starfire's eyes flash, "You... YOU!" The images of experimentations on herself, broadcast by Phobia, and Starfire's eyes snap. What is replaced is something more primevial, most beastial as Koriand'r goes fully berserk, and charges at Phobia at high speed, full power, just a bright dagger of rage and energy. "...." Arsenal then says, "Oh, wonderful, Deathstroke didn't really magically become a moron. Great. I'll have to call him and apologize. Not!" He is already moving, whipping is bow out as he pulls an arrow to string, pull, and release! His moments are perfectly timed and graceful of long-time practice since childhood, his movements deserving of his old codename Speedy. And the arrow he shoots? Tear gas. If one has difficulty seeing and concentrating, hopefully they will have difficulty fighting. More effective in enclosed spaces, but hey, work with what you got. Superboy blinks, a little startled, but moves in fast enough, going straight for damage control. He deflects Starfire, causing her berserk charge to miss even as he's swinging for Phobia's jaw. His Teke will cushion the blow, but it'll still be like getting caught across the jaw by a brick. Even with villains, he's trying to keep the casualty count down. "Don't you realize that we don't CARE?!" Cassie starts to rage at 'Deathstroke', but before she can finish her comment M'gann explains what is really going on and the villians are revealed. "Really?" Starfire is headed for Doctor Light and Kon for Phobia. That leaves Rouge. So, Cassie blurs out, reappearing on 'Deathstroke's other side, still above and so the sight-lines to Wonder Girl are hopefully blocked by the billowing tear gas from Arsenal's gas-arrow. She flicks out the lengths of her lasso, meaning to throw some loops over the shapeshifting villian and shock her with lightning before she can respond. As Starfire goes towards Phobia, and is knocked slightly aside by Kon, she instead is snagged by an elastic arm of Madame Rouge, who slams an extended foot into the Tamaranean's face, before wrapping her entire body around the alien's body, and head, squeezing, and squeezing tightly. "Spoiled," she says, dryly, "Before we could do some -real- damage." A look to Dr. Light, "This will have to do." "Agreed," says Dr. Light. And, even as Phobia's jaw meets Kon's fist and TK powers, the Kryptonian is blasted with two arcs of energy from Dr. Light's arms or hands, it's hard to tell, to send the Kryptonian back and keep him under control. Phobia goes down, and goes down hard, but she's not out. Not yet. She focuses, hard, on Starfire's innermost fear, even as she struggles to keep consciousness. Wonder Girl's lasso hooks 'Deathstroke' cleanly. But then, the man simply steps -through- it, like a T2 Terminator walks through jail-cell bars. Then, his fist turns into a light grey-brown huge hammer that he wheels and slams into Wonder Girl's face; the image of Deathstroke shifts and falls away, to reveal a mountain of a ... thing. Clayface. The dangerous villain swings his other arm to ensnare the tear-gas arrow. It explodes, but within the confines of Clayface's mutable form, and he expels it back at the Titans. M'gann phases, and falls back, staring at Phobia, hard. "You will not hurt my friend," she tells the other mind-powered person on the battleground. As she's snagged around by Madame Rouge, having been stunned over by the blow to the side from Kon, her fear wars with her hate, and for Tamaraneans, both are extremely powerful things. Negative meotions. Starfire screams silently in what might be her tomb as she struggles, boxed up and practically cocooned, body temperature starting to rise rapidly exterior to her as mor enad more of her internalized solar energy starts to try and seek ways to escape.. Superboy runs towards Phobia, looking momentarily surprised that it's not a massive burst of speed, he gets to her just as the beams of light catch him, blasting him aside, even as he grabs hold of Phobia, his teke not taking the energy blast nearly as well as it would a physical blow. He and phobia are blown aside, a smoldering hole forming in his costume as he manages to deliver another blow as they hit the end of their arch, letting Phobia take the brunt of the impact. "Keep Light off me, once the illusionist's down, I can handle Clayface," he calls to his friends. Taken by surprise, her lightning not troubling Clayface in the least, Wonder Girl takes the huge impct in the face, sending her sailing far away through the park and out of the area. "Clayface," Arsenal says with annoyance. "Man, I don't know who is uglier, you or Slade!" He though shoots an electro-arrow toward Dr. Light, "Wonder Girl, concentrate on Dr. Light!" Tactics isn't his strongest point, but he has some experience and of course there are other concerns to handle. "Starfire! Listen to my voice, you know, the one that never shuts up! I'm worse than Impulse and Flash. Your family is here, and we aren't letting you down, you aren't alone!" It's the heat; Kory's heat that causes Madame Rouge to hiss, scream in fury, and unwind herself from Kory. And, in a fit of female rage, snags a few strangs of the Tamaranean's hair (and lets face it, that's not that difficult a task) and rips some of it out. She gets her distance from Starfire, then, reconstructing herself into a new form and refreshing herself thereby. And, she's ready to go again. Phobia, meanwhile, between the full assault goes down easily; this after all not the plan she exactly signed up for. And that just leaves Dr. Light, Madame Rouge, and Clayface for the group to deal with. And, with Wonder Girl temporarily out of the picture, Clayface turns his rage on the one who exposed him; one green teenaged Miss Martian. His huge hammer swings at her to smash her, literally, into a green fleshy puddle. And it hits. Sort of. And passes right through her again. She just stands there, looking at him. "You are not being very nice," she scolds him, without actually fighting. Instead, she broadcasts: << Wonder Girl! Are you okay? I can distract the one controlling the Light if you can come up behind him with your lasso. >> Telepathy. It rocks. The electrical arrow hits an invisible force field of bent light around the good Doctor, who tosses another few blasts of energy out; this time towards Roy. M'gann, meanwhile, plants the subtle suggestion in his mind there is -nothing- behind him and all his adversaries are in front of him... As Madame Rouge coils off of her, leaving.. One enraged, berserk Starfire, body literally glowing to the point the air around her is almost boiling as she stalks towards the prone Phobia, "You. YOU." Speaking in her native language, hre blood boiling with rage then as she builds up to a massive bolt over of energy in her hands, it sizzling up like a literal ball of plasma itself aimed at the disoriented adversary. Superboy recoils from the heat, still next to the unconscious Phobia, and not having enough of his powers to actually get her to safety from the angry alien princess without completely abandoning the fight, and, honestly, Star could catch up to him when he's like this. He does something very selfless and stupid. He stands up, and places himself between Star and Phobia, looking the older Titan in the eyes. "We don't do this, Kori," he says. "Don't sink to their level. It's over now, and our friends need our help," he says, looking past the miniature sun to Dr. Light. "Kori, please." There is no response from Wonder Girl, psychic or otherwise. As Kon steps between 'certain death' interferring between Kory and Phobia whose pretty much down for the count, Madame Rouge ... suddenly slinks away. Whether or not she sees the tides turning, is uncertain. She extends herself beyond the lighted area and the battleground into the park, expanding herself to meld with rock and ground, and disappearing into the background, leaving the prone Phobia to the mercy (or not) of the collected Titans, and Clayface and Dr. Light to fend for themselves ... M'gann, meanwhile, looks concerned, as she gets no response from Wonder Girl. She searches for the Half-God's mind, desperately trying to come into contact with it, and nudge Wonder Girl into waking, or making sure that Cassie is, in fact, still alive. She's not yet familiar with how rugged and sturdy the daughter of Zeus really is. << Wonder Girl? Can you hear me? Where are you?! Koriand'r is very upset and not herself, and Kon is weak. We will lose if you aren't here! Your help is needed! >> M'gann projects the urgency she feels, emotionally, towards the target she knows as Cassie's mind, ... hoping that Wonder Girl can hear it. Dr. Light takes aim at Kory's back, firing a few bolts towards her -- and they'll either hit her and Kon, or just her. Either way, the good Dr. would seem to win. Clayface seems to 'get' that he's not going to hit the Martian, the one who 'revealed' him, and twists to see where Wonder Girl went, suddenly realizing he's lost track of her, even as he scoops up Phobia in one hand. He might be moving to make a run for it as well? The blasts from Dr. Light over at her back, at full power, send Starfire sprawling and unconscious. The building up energy that had otherwise been decorating her body flee and vanish, and she is left with a nasty looking series of boils along her back from the high powered laser bursts that struck it. Superboy lets out an almost relieved sigh, and moves. He puts a hand on Clayface, and Phobia leaps from the villain's hands. He grins at the shapeshifter. "Hey, guess what, clay compresses." Then, with the full force he can muster, he starts pressing in on Clayface from every angle, hundreds of tons of pressure compressing Clayface, keeping him from shifting, even as he uses the larger (though not that much larger now) villain as a shield from Dr. Light. "Hey, Arsenal, I think should freeze this Ham for Thanksgiving!" he calls. Arsenal is soon rolling and dodging around, sliding along the grass expertly to avoid the lightning strikes. "Too slow old man! Green Arrow shoots straighter than you!" Ollie would so kick his ass for that comment. He pulls a freeze arrow, he only has two in his entire quiver as they are expensive and dangerous. He releases it, not at a supervillain, but at STARFIRE!!! "Down girl. I know you likely won't regret it later, but we would!" And he is already pulling the last one and shooting it off...this time at Clayface however. He's taking a risk using this so soon, but they have to take these guys down fast and hard. "Hey, Dr. Light, got a match? Cause, I'm smoking here!" And there is of course the psyology warfare. Clayface has never faced an opponent with telekentic powers before. As he's 'compressed', he pushes, rages, against the compression, putting Kon's telekenetic prowess to perhaps one of it's hardest tests, yet. Arsenal's freeze arrow impacts, the 'age-old' Batman trick works as well as it did the first time the cape-and-cowl'd crusader used it, turning Clayface into an oversized ice-cube. Oh, he'll melt. But for right now? There's not much the shapeshifting, super-strong villian can do until the freeze is over. And Phobia's just as much a victim to that freeze arrow as Clayface is, since she's stuck in his mass, and still out like a light. And that just leaves Dr. Light, what with Madame Rogue having disappeared. M'gann turns on the good Dr., and her eyes flare again; Dr. Light staggers back, as if suddenly someone had literally smacked him across the head and stunned him, "That isn't very nice," she scolds. And that leaves Arthur Light open to almost any attack. Starfire is unconscious, lying on the ground moderately injured, and otherwise unable to do anything further in the battle. As Clayface freezes, Superboy breaks contact, still doesn't have all his speed, but he's taken out villains with just the teke before, eh can do it again. He launches himself off the ground, sailing through the air to take a tele-enhanced swing at Arthur Light. Arsenal this time pulls out a throwing knife and flings it toward deadly accuracy at Dr. Light. He doesn't aim for a vital place, but he attacks the man's shoulder. A chunky area of meat for it to sink into and keep him distracted, and also to remind him later of what pain really is. He then moves to pull another arrow, and..., "Hey!" He grins, arms it and shoots. It's a BOXING GLOVE ARROW! He forgot he put that in for shits and giggles next time he was at Titans Tower. Between M'gann's doing a telepathic stun on Dr. Light, Kon's TK enhanced punch, and Arsenal's over-the-top boxing glove arrow, the 'threat' is over. Three of the four who attacked them are down and out, and will likely be collected by the proper authorities soon enough for isolation and containment. Wonder Girl will be found off in the woods somewhere, where M'gann will carry her back to the Tower, and make certain with concern that she's alright. A FEW HOURS LATER: Madame Rouge enters the forgotten and abandoned military base that they've taken refuge in. She approaches the door, and is recognized by the security equipment that's recently been installed. A 'piisssssh' releases the door handle, and she steps through. Triumphantly smiling, she holds out the strands of bright orange Tamaranean hair, "The mission was ultimately a success. Though they seemed to have a new member we were unaware of. She foiled the full plot before it could fully play out. But, this should be enough." From the shadows, a giant white machine wheels out. And, in the specialized casing, the pink brain contained within seems still. The frame of the deathmask-like machine churns out the roboticized words, "Excellent. Mallah. Is everything ready?" The gorilla nods, smiling. He says, in French, "< Of course, Brain. Everything is ready. We should have our clones soon. The chambers are ready. And we'll see if they are fit for our purposes. And, then, maybe, we can finally be together if they prove stable. >" "Her DNA should prove viable," agrees the Brain, as the three move into the hall filled with six cloning vats. "Begin phase 2. And, work on breaking out those that were captured and Cheshire. They will keep the Titans busy, while we work." And, they begin to set to work on their scientific abominations, in secret ...